1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cellular telecommunications systems and methods, and specifically to storing and retrieving subscriber data associated with mobile subscribers within a cellular network.
2. Background of the Present Invention
Cellular telecommunications is one of the fastest growing and most demanding telecommunications applications. Today it represents a large and continuously increasing percentage of all new telephone subscriptions around the world. In the near future, service providers will begin to roll out third generation cellular networks, which will offer new and customized features to mobile subscribers. However, the current cellular network architecture lacks the flexibility needed to be able to cope with the vast amount of data and operations expected due to third generation cellular networks.
For example, since all subscriber data is currently centrally stored in the Home Location Register (HLR) with copies to the serving Mobile Switching Center/Visitor Location Register (MSC/VLR), introducing new and customized features may require enormous amounts of additional storage space in the HLR and MSC/VLR and may require further standardization of the HLR and MSC/VLR. This storage process is inflexible and extremely costly, making it difficult to introduce new subscriber data. Thus, as the amount of data increases, neither the HLR nor the MSC/VLR may be the best place to store all of the subscriber data.
In addition, the Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) network, which is the existing network used to transport the subscriber data between the HLR and the MSC/VLR, is expensive and time-consuming. Thus, SS7 may not be the best way to transfer the subscriber data in the future. In sum, as a result of the increase in the number of services and associated subscriber data, the impact on the HLR and MSC/VLR nodes will create bottlenecks in the cellular network, which will eventually lead to a decline in network performance.